Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) CEO Discusses Q2 2013 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) Q2 2013 Earnings Call July 24, 2013 4:30 PM ET

Executives

Daniel Briggs - Vice President of Investor Relations

Sheldon Adelson - Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, Treasurer

Robert Goldstein - Executive Vice President, President - Global Gaming Operations

Michael Leven - President, Chief Operating Officer, Secretary, Director

Analysts

Shaun Kelley - Bank of America

Joe Greff - JPMorgan

Cameron McKnight - Wells Fargo

Felicia Hendrix - Barclays

Carlo Santarelli - Deutsche Bank

Steven Kent - Goldman Sachs

Thomas Allen - Morgan Stanley

Harry Curtis - Nomura Securities

Ian Weissman - ISI Group

Operator

Good afternoon and welcome to the Las Vegas Sands Corp second quarter 2013 conference call. I will now turn the conference over to Daniel Briggs.

Daniel Briggs

Thank you. Before I turn the call over to Mr. Adelson, let me remind you that today's conference call will contain forward-looking statements that we are making under the Safe Harbor provisions of federal securities laws. The company's actual results could differ materially from the anticipated results in those forward-looking statements. Please see today's press release under the caption, forward-looking statements, for a discussion of risks that may affect our results.

In addition, we may discuss adjusted net income and hold-adjusted adjusted net income, adjusted diluted EPS and hold-adjusted adjusted diluted EPS, adjusted property EBITDA and hold-adjusted adjusted property EBITDA, all which are non-GAAP measures. A definition and a reconciliation of each of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the press release.

Please note that this presentation is being recorded. We also want to inform you that we have posted supplementary earnings slide in our investor relations website for your use. Finally, for those of you would like to participate in the Q&A session, we would ask that you keep one question and then one follow-up question.

With that, let me please introduce our Chairman, Sheldon Adelson.

Sheldon Adelson

Thank you, Dan. Good afternoon, everyone and thank you for joining us today. We are extremely pleased with our financial results, which continue to reflect our outstanding strategic positioning, strong execution and position of leadership in integrated resort development and operation. We delivered strong growth in revenue, cash flow and earnings per share, with hold-adjusted diluted earnings per share increasing 41.2% to reach $0.72 per share.

Our results continue to reflect strong execution against our core principal strategic objectives. We are more confidence than ever that successful execution against these strategic objectives will both extend our industry leadership and maximize shareholder value. I will provide a brief progress report on those four objectives before we move to your questions.

Our strategic objectives are, first, maximizing organic growth from our property portfolio. Second, deliver additional growth by making new investments in our current markets. Third, identify and nurture new integrated resort development opportunities in geographic areas outside our current markets. Fourth, continue to increase the return of capital to shareholders. I like last one most. It's a personal favorite of mine.

Focusing on organic growth, we again delivered an all time record performance in Macao where our industry leading investments and the unrivaled scale of our properties have again enabled us to deliver robust market leading growth in the world's largest and most profitable gaming market. We welcomed a record 14.6 million visits to our Macao properties in the quarter, an increase of 40% compared to the second quarter of 2012.

Adjusted EBITDA across our Macao property portfolio expanded 53.2% to reach a record $657.2 million. Our mass table win in Macau for the quarter was up a whoppy 61.1% to a record $930 million. Our growth in the quarter was twice as fast as the Macau market in the most important and profitable segment in the Macao. Also impressive is our growing volume growth in Macao, which is up 25.7% this quarter to a record $42 billion.

That represents VIP market share of approximately 17.4% on Macau market rolling value compared to just 14.8% one year ago. Our growth for the quarter was nearly 2.5 times faster in the Macao market in the VIP segment.

The Venetian Macao delivered their strongest quarter in the property's history. The Venetian Macao leads the Macao market in visitation, business and leisure tourism field, and last but not least the generation of EBITDA, which the reached property record of $361 million in the quarter. The Venetian's higher rolling chip drop increased 56.1% to reach a market leading property record of $1.59 billion for the quarter.

Sands Cotai Central continues it's steady growth with strong growth on display across the board. Our mass table, slot and ETG win per day increased over 158% this quarter compared to the period last year, reaching over $3.51 million per day. Visitation at Sands Cotai Central exceeded 40,000 visits per day during the quarter, an increase of over 142% compared to the year ago period.

EBITDA generation is also improving meaningfully and despite (inaudible) reached $146 million for the quarter. Had we held normally at Sands Cotai Central, the property would have generated approximately $170 million in adjusted property EBITDA during the quarter.

Now turning to Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Rolling volume was up over 24% compared to last year's second quarter, reaching $14.4 billion. On a hold-adjusted basis, we have reduced EBITDA $396 million this quarter and Marina Bay Sands which was up about 6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Turning to our U.S. operations. Hold-adjusted, adjusted property EBITDA was up nearly 8% in Las Vegas and grew nearly 10% in at Bethlehem. We are pleased to be generating growth in both the largest gaming market in the U.S., Las Vegas and the fastest selling gaming market in the U.S., Bethlehem.

Now let's turn to strategic objective number two, development growth in our current markets. The Parisian Macao, our fifth integrated reserve property at the Cotai Strip and our sixth in Macao overall is now under construction. Piling work is now well underway and the substructure work in the podium and hotel tower areas has commenced. Based on our current construction schedule, subject to timely government approvals, we are targeting the opening of The Parisian Macao for late 2015.

We are extremely enthusiastic about The Parisian which we would be themed, aspirational destination integrated resort, featuring replicas of iconic Parisian landmarks including a 50% scale replica of the Eiffel Tower. The Parisian's offering have been designed to appeal to a wide range of customers visits including the business and leisure traveler or families that is visiting the Macao's attraction for the very first time.

The dining, shopping and entertainment offerings of the Parisian reflects a seamlessly managed and work experience and our ten plus years of integrated resort development and operation in Macao. The Parisian Macao will be seamlessly integrated with our other Cotai Strip properties, the Venetian Macao, the Four Seasons Macao, Plaza Casino and Sands Cotai Central, increasing the property portfolio's clinical mass in business and - leisure tourist appeal, while enhancing the total return of our Cotai Strip portfolio.

We are also advancing our plans to sell shares in a coop fashion to prospective buyers of Four Seasons-branded Apartments in the Apart-hotel on the Cotai Strip. On June 5, 2013, the latest approval in the development process was published in Macao's official gazette. The eventual sale of Apart-hotel units has always been a fundamental component of our Cotai Strip development strategy of monetization of non-core assets.

Moving on a strategic objective number three. The development of integrated resorts in new markets and geographic areas. In Asia, activity levels in Japan have increased. We are pursuing the potential for Integrated Resort development with great enthusiasm and optimism. Korea has also shown increased activity and we are looking forward to the potential development of it. We have also been investigating opportunities in other parts of the world.

With respect to Madrid, there are a variety of steps left in development process. Any investment would be subject to receipt of government approvals and the finalization of any grants and incentive package that would enable investment as well as success in a competitive tender process.

High divested interest, and pursuing low and highest value projects that will maximize shareholder returns. As the company's largest shareholder, my interests are aligned with yours.

Finally, let's review to the strategic objective number four.

The return of capital to shareholders. We have now returned nearly $4.5 billion of cash to our shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases over the last 18 months, including over $3.7 billion to Las Vegas Sands shareholders and nearly $700 million to the non-LVS shareholders of Sands China.

It is gratifying that we have built our businesses and expanded our cash flows to the degree that we are able to return to shareholders substantial sums while retaining a strong balance sheet and ample liquidity to fund future growth opportunities.

We have every intention of increasing the returned dividend at both Las Vegas Sands and Sands China in the quarters ahead as our business and cash flows continue to grow. We are also pleased that the Board of Directors of Las Vegas Sands authorized on June 05, 2013 a $2 billion stock repurchase program.

The stock repurchase program will complement our previously established recurring dividend programs at Las Vegas Sands and Sands China. They will provide another avenue to the company to return capital to shareholders.

I am pleased to report that we are able to complete the establishment of the program during the quarter to repurchase 883,000 shares of stock at an average cost of $0.52 per share, returning nearly $47 million to shareholders. We believe the repurchase program will enable the company to enhance shareholder returns in the future. In summary, we are executing on all four of our strategic objectives.

I also wanted to point out that our leadership team is doing an outstanding job across the board. With our industry leading outstanding strategic position, strong operating momentum and a disciplined and experienced leadership team we have in place to execute our strategy. I couldn't be more confident about our continued success in the future.

With that, let me turn the call over to the operator to begin our Q&A session.

Earnings Call Part 2:

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/las-vegas-sands-corp-lvs-024101875.html

pecan pie recipe Hector Camacho Jill Kelly McKayla Maroney gronkowski jeremy renner best buy black friday deals